Questions tagged [word-ladder]
A word ladder puzzle has a source word and a target word, and to solve the puzzle you must find a chain of words, differing by one letter at a time, to link the two.
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Take BOSS to a SHOW, but quickly
Start with the word BOSS
Change one letter to get another word.
Change another letter and you will get the SHOW (the word SHOW that is)!
Can you do it that quickly?
No rearranging letters.
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The world's smallest square maze?
This puzzle is part of the Monthly Topic Challenge #14: Think inside the (very small) box!.
The smallest maze possible in a grid of squares would occupy a 2x2 grid (a 1x1 cell isn't a maze - it's a ...
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Life, uh, Finds a Way
[Rated PG-13 for language}
I saw someone wearing a "Life happens" t-shirt, which is a fine enough sentiment, but not the most common turn of phrase. It made me wonder...
How fast can you ...
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Word Wander - Connect the Words
A Word Wander, also called a "Synogram", is a word puzzle that requires you to connect the first and last word by following a certain pattern. Each word down the puzzle must be either a ...
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Changing WATER to STEAM
How do you change the word Water to the word Steam by changing one letter at a time? The newly formed words must be from Merriam Webster dictionary. No proper nouns, abbreviations or acronyms. No ...
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This word chain will come back to me
I am a four-letter word.
My anagram's antonym's Rot(13)'s synonym's homophone is a portion of
me.
What word am I?
Note: There are six separate words in this chain. Please list them all with ...
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Number conversion via Prime route
This is a variation of the Word Ladder. Instead this is a number ladder.
Convert the number 12345 to the number 54321 in seven or less steps
with the following rules
A: You can only change any one ...
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Three to Seven in five or less
Can you change the word Three to the word Seven in five steps or less with the following rules:
You must exactly replace two letters; one vowel and one consonant of the word in each step with a ...
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Word Chain (?) Bird to Nest
Lloyd is quite fond of math, and likes to incorporate math into almost everything he does. One weekend, the local newspaper printed a Word Chain puzzle, with starting point BIRD and ending with NEST. ...
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The largest lettered word which you can make and continue make words from it by deleting $1$ letter from it everytime [duplicate]
Ok, here is a simple puzzle to think :-
Find the largest lettered word such that deleting one letter at a time can give you a meaningful word in each step .
Note that only deletions are allowed, in ...
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TRUMP to BIDEN : This transition won't be easy
Can you change the word TRUMP to the name BIDEN in 10 steps or less by
changing one letter at a time?
Each change must result in a valid word from MW dictionary.
No proper nouns, abbreviations or ...
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Word Chain (Word-ladder?)
You've heard of the change LEAD to GOLD by changing one letter at a time. A player has suggested another, and we're having a hard time with it. BITTER to SWEETS.
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Wordmorphs IN SPACE!
The year is 21XX. Space tourism is easy and affordable. You decide to spend your next vacation hopping from planet to planet, hanging out with aliens and so forth. To that end, you rent a WordMorphian ...
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Change Four to Nine in fewest steps
Change the word
FOUR
to the word
NINE
by changing only one letter at a time. The change must result in a 4 letter word from the MW dictionary and cannot be an abbreviation,acronym, anagram or a ...
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A sequence of three letter words/abbreviations
I have ten three letter words/abbreviations in a sequence, numbered 0-9, each of which differ by precisely one letter from their previous and next words. Here are clues for each of the words:
The ...
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Words with Alchemists
You are probably familiar with Word Ladders, where you attempt to transform one word into another by switching one letter at a time, with each transformation forming a new word. This puzzle is similar....
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"phone" into "cord"? (word ladder)
Here's a classic word-ladder for y'all.
Can you transform "phone" into "cord", using only single-letter alterations?
Rules
Each step can either add a letter, remove a letter, or change a letter.
...
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A chain of words 3
Replace each line below with a new word of similar meaning that is legal in Scrabble. The last two or more letters of each new word must form the start of the next new word, and the first and last new ...
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Andrew's House Cleaning - A Word Ladder
Andrew is cleaning his house but needs help. Your task is to get from bits to bobs to odds to ends. You can alter letters, one at a time, and each intermediate word must be a valid word in dictionary....
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Another series of fortunate (and sideways) transpositions
Using only a sequence of transpositions, see if you can take this:
to this:
while maintaining English words on each of the three horizontals.
At each step, you may transpose any two neighboring ...
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A series of fortunate transpositions
Using only a sequence of transpositions, see if you can take this:
to this:
while maintaining English words on each of the three horizontals.
At each step, you may transpose any two neighboring ...
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Feedback for puzzle i made up
So I made this puzzle where you have words that branch off into other words. For example:
The blue letters you take and move it on to the next blank space, still putting it in order:
For ...
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Day Long Word Chain
What is the least amount of words you can use in a word chain when starting from "Dawn", using "Noon" in the middle, and finishing with "Dusk", and using only 4 letter words? Please try to stick to "...
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A chain of words 2
Replace each line below with a new two-syllable word (or three syllables, where noted) of similar meaning that is legal in Scrabble. The last two or more letters of each new word must form the start ...
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A chain of words
curlicue
baleful
running rigging example
passionate
toothy?
more up
complement of because
triangular cloth
curlicue
Replace each line above with a new two-syllable word of similar ...
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"bees" -> "hive" in 5 letter changes or fewer
Example of "warm" -> "cold":
warm
worm
word
cord
cold
Notice that it's a real word each time. Can you get from "bees" -> "hive" in 5 letter changes or fewer?
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Missing lattes and mutually mistrustful words
It's always amusing to watch two kids who don't trust each other swap baseball cards by exchanging them at exactly the same moment. Words can be equally mistrustful about trading their letters. ...
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Don't look back, crazy clown
Start with these two words
INSANE RETROSPECT
and see if you can get them to exchange places by transferring one letter at a time. With each ...
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The cat exchanges places with a drawing of the cat
Given
CAT RENDERING
see if you can get them to exchange places, resulting in
RENDERING CAT
by ...
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Chrysanthemum bejeweled with dew drops
If you squint, you might be able to see letters in the reflections of some of the dew drops. Those will help get you started.
In this puzzle, the adventure begins just after 12 o'clock and the ...
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How fast can you “DOCK” the “SHIP”? [closed]
You have to reach DOCK from SHIP in the minimum number of tries with the following rules.
You are only allowed to change one letter at a time.
You have to keep the word length the same.
At each step ...
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Snakes and Ladders
Things are getting a bit puzzly...
Reveal the Ladder and solve the clues to form a Word Ladder.
Find the word that fits in the clue “???”.
One fake clue is here to ruin your day [laughs ...
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Professor Clark’s Precious Chemical Connections
They are primarily eight precious ones.
Fill in the X s with appropriate letters to reveal all the 8 Precious Metals.
Each X represents a letter.
1,5,7..vertical. 2,3,4,6,8..horizontal
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Word Wall of Whimsical Wordy Whatchamacallits
I was making a particularly difficult word wall, when I misplaced all the words for it. Luckily, I still had the clues. However, poring through the clues, I realised that I had nine clues, yet my word ...
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Be a Wordsmith — Assemble enough words to score 50 from the Triangular Settings [closed]
Use this triangular setting of letters to form as many words(minimum length 5) as possible, following the given rules.
You can start at any letter, follow the connected lines to pickup additional ...
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Lead the way to this Literary Knight to its final “DESTINATION”
As this Literary Knight (only chess move allowed) hops along, picks up a letter each time to make it to final
$DESTINATION$
Starting from a cell containing right D, ride the Knight picking up each ...
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A Fairy Chess Ladder
This is yet a fairyly ordinary word ladder on the chessboard.
Sequence:
PAWN > KNIGHT > ROOK > QUEEN > KING
Rules:
Each step you can do ONE of the following:
1) Add a letter
2) ...
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Fastest way from 10 to 1 with everyone in between
I got inspired by this question from trolley813 to make this puzzle.
How fast one can get from TEN to ONE, passing each number in between?
The rules are simple:
You are only allowed to change ...
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Change EDIT to UNDO
On your computer right now, you can probably click on the "Edit" menu; and one of the first options will be "Undo". These are closely associated words. But how close are they in a word ladder?
...
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Fastest way from 8 to 7
Inspired by this great question by Uvc (actually, it's the same logic but with different words).
How fast one can get from EIGHT to SEVEN?
The rules are the same:
You are only allowed to change one ...
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As easy as Three, Two, One... How fast can you go from Five to Four?
You have to reach Four from Five in the minimum number of tries with the following rules.
You are only allowed to change one letter at a time.
You have to keep the word length the same.
At each step ...
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Bike Lock Word Ladders
We are going to construct word ladders, but unlike the classic word ladders in which only one letter can change per step, you may change as many letters as you like at each step. However, each letter ...
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Moans to Rocky in 4 moves?
In his novel A Case of Need, one of Michael Crichton's characters claims that the classic word‑ladder‡ "MOANS to ROCKY" can be made in 4 moves (5 lines total).
But the book does not ...
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Word Ladders go to the movies
An entry in Fortnightly Topic Challenge #36: Twisted Classics 1
You love movies. You had several (9) VHS tapes, neatly organized in their sleeves, up on a shelf. However, due to a certain incident, ...
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WmK: Oh, Life Relax Please!
"Oh, Life Relax Please!" is the title of a book about yoga that my Grandfather gifted me. This Wordmorph K is inspired by his love of wisdom and knowledge.
If you are not familiar with this ...
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Wordmorph K: An Introduction
Let me introduce you to a game I invented called Wordmorph K (WmK). You may have played a variation of this game in the past.
WmK Rules:
1) The objective is to transform the "Start Word" to the "...
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Want to go from MANILA to UGANDA
How do you get from the word MANILA to UGANDA in the shortest time?
You can change up to 3 letters at a time to form a new 6 letter word which MUST be either a country name or a capital of a country.
...
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Fruit Transformation
This word ladder is a little more difficult, especially being 5 letter words.
Can you transform an APPLE into a MANGO?
No proper names.
Goal is to be smallest amount of steps.
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From bottom to top
A twist on the word-ladder type of puzzle:
Reach from "bottom" to "top", following these rules at each step:
You can change a letter, remove a letter or add a letter at each move.
The changed ...
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Transforming Colors
Inspired by the increase of word ladders lately I found a fun one.
Transform the color BLUE into PINK.
No proper names.
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